Roeth: Backing up reports with research
Key takeaways
- NACFE reports rely on research and input from fleets with real-world technology experience.
- Executive summaries, graphics, and videos help fleets access key findings without reading full reports.
- NACFE is developing an AI-based tool to make its research library easier for fleets to search.
The North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE) is well known for its Confidence Reports and Guidance Reports. We often get comments from folks about how long those reports are. I'm not sure if they mean that as a compliment or a complaint. I cannot deny that we do write very long reports, but there is a reason for that.
The authors conduct extensive research before they begin writing. They synthesize information from hundreds of sources—it is not unusual to list 200-plus sources in the reference section of our reports. We share our reference list for transparency. We want the industry to know where we get the information that underpins our conclusions.
For 17 years leading NACFE, we have used this approach: providing short summaries along with long reports. We provide the long reports to share our supporting research. Have you ever read a short report—perhaps 10 pages—and wondered, “How did they come up with these findings?” only to find no explanation of their reasoning? I don’t want that with our reports.
Our goal is to be unbiased, but we also know that each author, based on their background, work experience, and education, has some bias. When researching a report, we include a wide variety of sources and always speak with fleets that have real-world experience with the technologies we are studying.
While I would like to think someone interested in a technology will read the entire report, I know lots of folks just don’t have time to read a 150-plus page report. That is why we include executive summaries with each report that summarize our key findings. We also include graphics and videos that highlight the key findings.
If you read an executive summary of one of our reports and come across something you don’t agree with, I encourage you to download and read the full report; at a minimum, you'll find the logic behind the findings. Remember, all of our reports are free. While this may not change your mind, you will see that our conclusions are based on significant research.
Over the next several months, we will update some of our reports with an updated Confidence Report on tractor and trailer aerodynamics and the Fleet Efficiency Study, still to be published this year.
On another front, Yunsu Park, our director of engineering, is working on a new AI-based research tool that we plan to release to the public. It will let people search 10,000 pages of reports, including Confidence Reports, Guidance Reports, Thought Leadership Reports, and Collaboration Reports.
We hope this new tool will make our research even more accessible to all of you. We are still testing the tool internally, but I will let you know when it is available.
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Michael RoethMichael Roeth
Executive Director
Michael Roeth is the executive director of the North American Council for Freight Efficiency. He serves on the second National Academy of Sciences Committee on Technologies and Approaches for Reducing the Fuel Consumption of Medium and Heavy-Duty Vehicles and has held various positions with Navistar and Behr/Cummins.